Root Cause Medicine: Why Treating Symptoms Isn’t Enough

What happens when conventional medicine isn’t enough?

In this episode of Ultra Life Today, Dr. Lindsay Adrian explains the fundamental difference between conventional medicine and naturopathic medicine — and why looking for the root cause of illness can transform a patient’s health journey.

We discuss:
* The philosophy behind naturopathic medicine
* Why conventional medicine is excellent at treating emergencies
* Why prevention and recovery often require a different approach
* How empowering patients changes the healing process
* The surprising truth about how the body renews itself every 7 years

If you’ve ever wondered what root cause medicine actually means, this episode offers a clear introduction.

Listen to the full episode here or watch it on YouTube!: https://youtu.be/aRFkpiwa5hw

📌 Disclaimer: Educational content only. Not medical advice.

Visit UltraBotanica.com to learn more about us and how you can get a free sample of our products.

Transcript

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0:00:00 - (Dr. Lindsay Adrian): I call it the conventional medical world. That world serves really, really important purposes, but the purpose is generally putting out fires, right? That world is very, very good at targeting fires. That world does not prevent the fire and it doesn't clean up after the fire. That's my job. I do prevention and cleanup and sometimes I also get to help fight the fire. But I do it in such a way that preserves the building because at the end of the day, you can't put out the fire and destroy the building in the process. We actually have to keep that building standing so that there's something to live in afterwards. And patients generally kind of get that.

0:00:37 - (Dr. Lindsay Adrian): And if I can start them with that premise, then they go, okay, yeah, my kidney infection, that's fire in this one particular spot in this building.

0:00:53 - (Josh Bellew): Foreign. Hey everyone. Welcome to Ultra Life today. I'm Josh Bellew. My gun hand CEO Adam Payne is not here today, but I'm going to have a really fun time with someone that I have met on a number of occasions. Trying to chase down our next guest would be no easy task because Dr. Lindsay Adrian, a naturopath with all kinds of accolades and letters to her name that I'll let her tell you about if she wants to.

0:01:23 - (Josh Bellew): She has a jam packed life, family, thriving naturopathic medical practice, and her alter ego is kind of globetrotting around and featured as a speaker all across the United States. I suspect even across the world at times. She delivers powerful health insights to guess what? Packed rooms of her own medical peers can't get better than that. So when I asked Lindsay what she wanted to talk about today, she just threw out. It's like choose anything and threw out this wonderful list.

0:01:52 - (Josh Bellew): But you know, as I thought about this, I thought there's so much confusion, there's so much disappointment, there's so much fear of someone that's been in a conventional medical allopathic relationship with a physician their whole life and yet they know there's something more and they're not getting well and they're not getting better. And all of a sudden somebody goes, you need to meet my naturopathic doctor.

0:02:14 - (Josh Bellew): And then life can begin to change. And I think what we're going to do with Lindsay today is help her kind of take the hand someone that may be transitioning from that world into a world not of symptom management, but in looking for root cause medicine and then allowing a person to actually have a legitimate journey to optimal health. So anyway, Lindsay Adrian, I'm so glad to see you here today. Thanks for taking the Time.

0:02:43 - (Dr. Lindsay Adrian): Absolutely. Thanks for having me, Josh. It's fantastic to be here.

0:02:49 - (Josh Bellew): Good, good. So if you like, because I know you've done this once or twice, give us a little snapshot of, I think I'd love to do it this way. Give us some of those letters next to your name and what they mean. But then we always love to hear an individual's personal journey, because every time I have interviewed physicians, they all seem to have one defining epiphany moment. That is what transitioned them from where they were into this interesting world of root cause medicine.

0:03:22 - (Josh Bellew): And so give us a little background on you, your story, and why you have all these different incredible certifications and designations next to your name.

0:03:31 - (Dr. Lindsay Adrian): Thank you. Well, I have to start with, perhaps unsurprising to you, the fact that I'm a bit of a weirdo. I was that kid who always knew I was going to be a physician. Always. I had teddy bears solely for the purpose of putting band aids on them. And Journey really was one of what kind of doctor do I want to be? And I was this kid that was, you know, always thinking about the why and. And, you know, the larger world around me. And I realized really fairly early that it didn't make sense to me that our medical model was very reductionistic. It was very, you know, let's get down to only one system.

0:04:09 - (Dr. Lindsay Adrian): And so, you know, if you had a headache, you saw a neurologist, but what if your headache was because you were dehydrated? Or what if your headache was because you stubbed your toe and you were walking funny? Or what if you're. There were so many different reasons why you could have a headache. And so I thought about that as a teenager. And then I had the great pleasure of being in a sports medicine class in my high school.

0:04:32 - (Dr. Lindsay Adrian): I went to a large high school that had lots of sports teams, and so I was a sports medicine trainer for those teams. And as part of that class, I was challenged to do an essay on a different form of medicine. And I had no idea that there were different forms of medicine. And I had been seeing a chiropractor and an acupuncturist for my own sort of musculoskeletal challenges as a kid. And I went in and I said, well, what. What am I going to do this on?

0:05:03 - (Dr. Lindsay Adrian): And this chiropractor said, well, you should. You should look into naturopathic medicine. I said, what the heck is that? And this. Cairo said, well, just. Just take a look. And when I tell this story, I always have to Remember, this is at the beginning of the Internet. So there were only, there were not very many websites on the Internet.

0:05:23 - (Josh Bellew): 1999, 2000, somewhere around there.

0:05:26 - (Dr. Lindsay Adrian): Yeah, it was like 97. 90.

0:05:28 - (Josh Bellew): Oh, 97. Okay.

0:05:29 - (Dr. Lindsay Adrian): Yeah. And so I did, I went on the Internet and the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine and the Canadian association of Naturopathic Doctors had websites. And so that was my research and I took a look and there are six core principles of naturopathic medicine and they involve, you know, first, do no harm and treating the whole person, treating the cause of the problem, trusting in nature, trusting in the body's inherent ability to heal.

0:06:01 - (Dr. Lindsay Adrian): Doctor as teacher, which really, really, really spoke to me, and prevention as the most appropriate tool for medicine. And truly I read those principles and it was like the clouds parted and the sun shone down and you know, 16 year old Lindsay was like, this is my medicine. This is the medicine that I, that I want to practice. And so there wasn't any kind of major health scare, there wasn't any family member who got cancer there, there wasn't anything like that. For me, for me it was a journey of what kind of medicine do I want to practice?

0:06:39 - (Dr. Lindsay Adrian): And 16 year old Lindsay, you know, discovering this type of medicine that I didn't know existed and that was it. I just, I decided at that point I was going to be a naturopathic doctor. And and then over the years I did an undergraduate degree in chemistry and that reinforced further, you know, I sat in my organic chemistry classes and a good yield in organic chemistry is 30%. So if you put two reagents together and they combine, end result of that is only 30% predictable and the rest is all side reactions. And I, you know, I was like, oh, well, if that's organic chemistry in a lab, what's organic chemistry in our body?

0:07:23 - (Dr. Lindsay Adrian): And it just, there were so many things that just reinforced. Wait a minute, maybe the typical pharmaceutical model is not the only model. It's an important model, but maybe it's not the only model. And again, just continued experiences through my undergraduate years and then into school that just continuously reinforced that, yes, this is my medicine. And then when I was in school and I was deciding what I wanted to focus on, really, there was no question I knew that I was going to do cancer care and chronic illness. And that really came down to how do patients experience wellness, how you do in those fields, so both illness and wellness, and how can they experience that disease and that, that healing process.

0:08:14 - (Dr. Lindsay Adrian): And there was just such a huge gap, right? There was this massive space where it seemed like they weren't getting any support. And I knew that integrative medicine and naturopathic medicine could bridge that gap and could considerably change the way that people experience health and disease. And so I decided I was going to park myself in that space. And I basically spent my whole naturopathic training pursuing knowledge and pursuing mentorship in those fields.

0:08:45 - (Dr. Lindsay Adrian): And that continued past my graduation. I did general residency for a year, followed by a fellowship in naturopathic oncology. I had some phenomenal mentors. I've had some really, really great opportunities to work in truly cutting edge, truly innovative space. Um, I have a fellow of the American Board of Naturopathic Oncology designation. Now that's that fabno designation. I'm a very big advocate of education, which is how you and I, of course, have met. I think conferences are a fantastic way to just spread knowledge and share.

0:09:25 - (Dr. Lindsay Adrian): And I think the conversations outside of the lecture hall are just as important as the conversations inside the lecture halls. And it's. I think, if I am only able to help the person sitting across from me, that I'm only doing half my job. I have to continue to support good conversations and good information so that my colleagues can also elevate and so that I can also elevate. And that's what we just all need to do, is to continue to push that elevation of cutting edge integrative care.

0:09:59 - (Josh Bellew): You know, you are a natural born teacher, aren't you? I love that about you. And it's interesting. I interviewed Dr. Joshua Hirsch. I don't know if you got to meet him at the AAM MP conference, but he did his second grade paper. He was the only one I've ever interviewed like you. Now, he did have a health crisis, but he was like my second grade paper. And, you know, I was getting close to being 8 years old, and I did it on the kissing disease of mononucleosis. And my teacher and other people are going, what?

0:10:30 - (Josh Bellew): So it was, you know, so yeah, you. You had it kind of going in you from a very early age. Conventional health care, this great big chasm in an individual's mind who's been a patient all their life, and now they're moving into this integrative, functional, naturopathic world. I would think because I've met hundreds of them in the last few years that are dealing with aggressive autoimmune or even cancer, that they feel overwhelmed when they hear about another approach, because it's like deer in the headlights. They've never been there, but they know what they're doing isn't working.

0:11:06 - (Josh Bellew): How do you reassure a patient? Take me through the journey. If Josh Bellew was popping into your place and my entire life had been, oh, I cut myself, I've got to put a band aid on, and then I've got a headache. I'm going to take, you know, three ibuprofen and ooh, you know, I worked out a little too hard, more ibuprofen. I had a kidney infection and before I knew it, I was in surgery and they were saying, you've got this problem. And my parents are going, what this all did, by the way, happened to me. How do you take somebody like me that shows up, that may be deer in the headlights and maybe in a health crisis and lead them into this world where you get to become their teacher.

0:11:43 - (Josh Bellew): But it's not so overwhelming that they just go, their eyes glaze over and they never come back to your office. They'll want, give me an idea how you do that.

0:11:55 - (Dr. Lindsay Adrian): You know, I think it's really first and foremost about meeting people where they're at. Because I absolutely have those individuals who come into my office and they have been suggested to see me by a friend or a family member and they know nothing about world of integrative and naturopathic medicine. And then of course, I also have those patients who come in incredibly self educated and they've done a lot of reading.

0:12:19 - (Dr. Lindsay Adrian): So if I've got that person who's never heard of naturopathic medicine before, I start them with the sort of framework of all of the world that you've lived in that I call it the conventional medical world. That world serves really, really important purposes, but the purpose is generally putting out fires. Right. That world is very, very good at targeting fires. That world does not prevent the fire and it doesn't clean up after the fire.

0:12:46 - (Dr. Lindsay Adrian): That's my job. I do prevention and cleanup and sometimes I also get to help fight the fire. But I do it in such a way that preserves the building because at the end of the day, you can't put out the fire and destroy the building in the process. We actually have to keep that building standing so that there's something to live in afterwards. And patients generally kind of get that, that. And if I can start them with that premise, then they go, oh, okay, yeah, my, my kidney infection, that's, that's fire in this one particular spot in this building. Okay, so I need that antibiotic or I need that, you know, acute intervention to put out the fire. But also that's not the sum Total of it. Because if that's all we do is put out the fire, well, then you're still left with a charred hole and it's not very pleasant and it can make living in that space pretty inhabitant.

0:13:37 - (Josh Bellew): I heard a surgeon who'd had a real paradigm shift in his wasn't because of a health crisis. He said, you know, I'm a board certified surgeon in a particular specialty, I forget. But he said, as I was doing my fifth surgery on the same patient one day in the operating room, he said, I am functioning on the wrong side of this disease. Exactly what you just said. There's been a raging fire five times in this female patient of mine and my only choice was to go back in, open her up and do surgery. And he's like, what is wrong with this picture? I'm starting at the complete wrong end of this disease. So I love, and I love the fact that you also said preserving the building.

0:14:23 - (Josh Bellew): Because what I've noticed in my life with so many people, there's a really interesting Bible story about a woman with the issue of blood. And the thing that always stands out to me in that other than how deeply she wanted to be. Well, it said that she had visited physician after physician after physician and the last state of her was worse every time she went to the next physician. Nobody ever said, hey, wait a minute, it could be this, let's look there.

0:14:54 - (Josh Bellew): So I so appreciate what you've said there. Do you have anything that you would say? Because again, these people aren't being referred into your office that are going to be watching this and listening for someone that is listening may be curious after hearing our little opener here, but they're hesitant. What would you say is the first mindset shift that they can make that would make them go? That's an attractive option.

0:15:22 - (Josh Bellew): Say you were out and you hadn't had a referral and you meet someone and they're dialoguing with you about health and all of a sudden you feel the spirit moving you that, hey, there's an open door for me to maybe help this individual. What do you do to get that initial paradigm shift taking place?

0:15:40 - (Dr. Lindsay Adrian): One of the things that I, I always come back to, and I guess a catchphrase, I guess if I, if I have one, is that we always have to think physiologically, not pathologically. So the disease that the person has, it doesn't really matter to me. What matters to me is what's happening in the body and how do we corre. And so just that's like the framework that my brain works under. So when I meet someone and I'm not necessarily going to see them in my office, but I want them to understand the power that they have.

0:16:15 - (Dr. Lindsay Adrian): Because I think re empowering people is truly one of our big, big purposes in the integrative medical space, Right?

0:16:24 - (Josh Bellew): Absolutely.

0:16:25 - (Dr. Lindsay Adrian): The conventional medical model is something that's done to someone, the integrative model is something that's done with someone and trying to get someone to framework shift to be able to re empower them. I come back to the physiology. So something that I say on a regular basis is that physiologically we have a almost entirely new body. Every seven years, all of the tissues in our body turn over and they have different rates of turnover. But generally if you think about it, it's a seven year cycle.

0:17:03 - (Dr. Lindsay Adrian): So every seven years you have new skin, new intestines, new heart, new lungs, new new body. Even your bones are turning over. There's small turnover of nerves, but they do turn over as well. And so if you think about what that means, you have such power because every one of those cells is going to have to use what you are putting into your body to make a new self. So you can't change what was seven years ago, but you can change what you are going to be made of seven years from now.

0:17:39 - (Dr. Lindsay Adrian): And that choice doesn't have to be perfect, but it does have to be more than what the last seven years has been. And so the food that you take into your body, the air that you breathe, the water that you drink, the thoughts that you think, and the environment that you surround yourself, the physical activity that you do, all of of these things contribute to new cell membranes, new biochemistry, new tissue.

0:18:07 - (Dr. Lindsay Adrian): And when you really think about what that means on a physiological level, you get to choose how, what is your body made of, how does your body function? And every step that you walk forward from now for the next seven years is going to impact how your body functions seven years from now. So it just helps to shift.

0:18:33 - (Josh Bellew): Yeah, you have approached that in such an interesting way because I've never heard anyone frame it that your actual mission is to open a crack in the door, let some light in where an individual actually goes, wait a minute, I've never been in control of my health. This person is showing me that I can actually, I have a superpower that I didn't know about and I can actually develop that. You know, I was actually born with it. It's just been hidden from view for so long because of the conventional medical paradigm that they may have lived in all their life. I love that.

0:19:12 - (Josh Bellew): Empowering. So get that, viewers. You have immense power and the ability to be able to move forward. And in this world, as Lindsay just stated so eloquently, it's a partnership. It's someone coming alongside being a mentor, being a teacher, being there to actually say we're to walk down this road to gather. I'm not just going to say, see you after five minutes. You've done a beautiful job of setting the stage for where we're going to go. We've talked about what naturopathic medicine is.

0:19:44 - (Josh Bellew): Root cause medicine is looking at this landscape of the body, this beautiful temple that we've been gifted with and to realize, wow, we can actually be empowered to make a change. I love the kind of seven year cycle, seven year goal. It doesn't seem too far out of reach, but it's like, okay, I can do something today that's going to make this seven year journey better. You've also helped to really pull the words right out of my heart.

0:20:11 - (Josh Bellew): A patient has to realize when they come to you, they literally do not have to completely change their world overnight. Any little step they take can be light for the next step on the journey can open up their mind. It can put hope. Hope. Oh my gosh, you threw out hope. So in the next episode, let's get practical. Let's talk about maybe the first 90 days of you working, what it's like to work with you maybe for the first 90 days. What might happen at 30 days or 60 days or 90 days as you're seeing a new patient and guiding them into this world of naturopathic medicine, integrative medicine. I really also want to know what changes maybe are going to be felt maybe by a person in the first 30 days? I've got this.

0:20:56 - (Josh Bellew): I remember reading a book that a psychologist recommended one time, and I was never a smoker. But he said, josh, there are physiological and biochemical changes taking place in an individual's body within the first hour after they put nicotine down and put down cigarettes with all the chemicals in them. And I'm like, no way. And he goes, oh, yeah. And he said, and every day after. And I think the book's premise was what actually happens within seven days?

0:21:22 - (Josh Bellew): And the person is like, oh my gosh, I just made the best decision of my life. And it happened that quick. You know, enough of the science that you can get us into that. So let's, let's wrap this up. Do you want to learn more about Dr. Lindsay Adrian? Guess what? She has a website by the same name. It's Dr. Lindsayadrian.com. and is it just Dr. No. Period after that? Lindsay that's correct. Okay. So D R Lindsay is spelled L I N--S A Y Adrian A-R-I-A N.com

0:21:57 - (Josh Bellew): Dr. Lindsayadrian.com Trust me, if you Google her, you're going to have so many choices. You're not going to know what to do because she's kind of everywhere in this world. So, anyway, thanks for this first episode, Lindsay. We're going to join you again for episode two and kind of set the table a little bit for this patient experience for you. Maybe within the first 90 days. I want to hope to spring eternal in the hearts of the viewers. So thanks, Lindsay.

0:22:20 - (Dr. Lindsay Adrian): Thank you.